Breakfast with Joe

Starbucks is where I met Joe.  Not initially, but on a particular Saturday morning.  We had arranged a meeting several weeks prior.  That meeting was cancelled for one reason or the other and I seem to remember it being rescheduled and cancelled again.  In any case, however many times it was rescheduled, it finally happened on the Saturday after I came back from Florida.

Joe had mentioned earlier in the summer of 2019 that he may want to connect me with a church plant team to grow the church's presence in our city.  I loved that idea!  As I mentioned in The Five Years, I committed internally that I would do this church leadership thing for 5 years, and we were in the last few weeks of the last year.  I was thinking in my head that Joe could connect me with the church plant team, I could identify a candidate or two who might be good longterm leaders, then I could tell Joe that I was stepping down and turn everything over to this other person or people, and have a rest from the leadership role and just enjoy being a part of the church.  I loved this plan. 

And then came my trip to Florida.  

I didn't know what the plan was now.  I didn't really have a plan.  I had recently made a call to Duane which helped bring some semblance of clarity to the options, but I didn't really have a plan.  

So, I met Joe to ask him about his thoughts, and now I had to tell him about Florida.

He knew most of the story, so we recapped briefly.  I told him about wanting more information about a church plant team and how it would ultimately work... 

... oh, and there's something else.  Florida.

He thought for a minute and then he told me he thought Florida was a "Psalm 37:4 thing."

4 

Take delight in the Lord,

    and he will give you the desires of your heart.

I told Joe a little story: back in college there was a job I didn't want.  I prayed and asked God for a different one even though I had this opportunity for a perfectly good job, I just didn't want it.  Everyone said there wasn't anything around this place but cornfields.  My grandmother sent me a little devotional right about that time, and on the front was a picture of a cornfield and two verses: Psalm 37:3,4.

Later, I was graduating and resisting the idea of going to graduate school.  I hated the idea of graduate school.  I was also dating someone that wasn't good for me, and frankly, I wasn't good for her.  I prayed and told God I would do whatever he wanted me to do even if it meant going to graduate school and breaking up with this girl--I assumed that would render me a life of solitude, but we all know what happens when we assume!  I got off my bed, wiped the tears from my eyes and decided to move on with my day.  I picked up my mail and read a letter from a friend.  At the end of her letter she wrote a verse.  Yep.  Psalm 37:3,4.  

Joe said he could see this process going like this: he would send out some 'feelers' and find out what people were thinking--who might be ready to move to Louisville and become part of this team.  He suggested the simplest way to structure the transition would be to dissolve the existing bylaws, and thus the structure of the organization, and we operate like a church plant while a new team comes into place.  

Sound familiar?

So, this was a significant verse for me and a significant meeting:

This verse had come up again when I had an 'unwanted' or really just unforeseen opportunity.

This conversation was the second time someone independently suggested the same solution: dissolve the old and create something new.  

A Call to Duane

After A Trip to Florida I called Duane.

"Duane, you'll never guess what's happening..."

I told him all about everything.  I told him that I had a meeting scheduled with the church leader who oversees our area that very next day.  I told him I had a meeting with the two guys on our church's leadership team.  I told him about Florida.  

I was nervous about talking to Duane, but one thing I know is that Duane would tell me the honest truth.  I knew he would tell me what he truly thought and felt, even if he thought I wouldn't like it.  I knew Duane held the fulfillment of responsibility in high regard, and leaving a post to take a different position isn't something he would take lightly.  I needed to know what he thought, and I anticipated he would not like the idea of Florida.

I was surprised.

To paraphrase our conversation, Duane talked through how the transition might go.  He does hold the fulfillment of responsibility in high regard and that fact came up in our conversation.  He said he could see the 'rightness' of a transition plan under certain circumstances.  

He and I had discussed the future of the church before--years earlier, and on a regular basis including several times in the weeks just preceding the trip to Florida.  We had discussed the significance of the church's formal, but perhaps nominal ties to a larger worldwide organization.  We had discussed the potential wisdom in strengthening that connection.  We had discussed the need to bring in some folk from that organization and ways that might be possible--in cooperation with the organization's leadership.  

During this call we did an inventory.  We remembered the things we had each felt when we had those moments of the 'strong sense' over the past years.  We discussed my sense that I was supposed to find the 'kink in the hose' so it could be un-stoppered and the hose could be connected up to a new faucet.  We discussed the pruning of the trees and the nurse branch.  We discussed his sense that the existing organization may need to be 'planted' and die, as a seed dies to then sprout new growth.  The organization, after all, is only there to support what God is doing in the life of the people.  If the support is no longer effective, it needs to be reimagined, remodeled, rebuilt.  We discussed the timing as all of this was happening at the end of the 5 years.  

Duane concluded that if the current organization dissolved, my position would dissolve with it and whatever took its place would take my place as well.  Florida could very well be the next thing for me and my family.

How would we know for sure?  I mentioned it before, but it's helpful to mention here: often when I have a strong sense about something that proves to be significant, it comes up several times.  That repetition is important here.  

There were still people who needed to weigh in.  

A Trip to Florida

 Sometime in late September or early October my friend called me from Florida.  They still had no one doing my particular job and there was one particular item, an inspection of some parts of the construction work, that required someone like me.  She called.  "We really need this work done to keep our timelines on schedule and we're out of options.  Can you do this work for us?"

This would be crazy.  I didn't have a Florida license or personal liability insurance.  So many reasons to say, 'no.' So, I told her all of this and agreed to help her find someone locally who could help out.  

"There's not time," she insisted.  We're out of options.  

Reluctantly, I agreed on the condition that I could get the license and the insurance.  The obstacles quickly melted away.  The license and insurance quickly revealed themselves to be very small obstacles which were easily overcome.  Before I knew it, I had a couple of days off and I flew with my family to Florida.  It quickly became apparent that this was more than a contract job, but rather a surreptitious interview!  I was not alarmed, but strengthened in my resolve that Florida was not for me, or for us.  

After the 'interview' meet-and-greets, I was indeed impressed with the whole operation, and shocked to realize how closely matched my experience was to the plans this organization had in progress.  I enjoyed my day thoroughly, and the construction inspection was smooth.  Quite a lot of fun, which was followed by an invitation to dinner.  During the dinner with my friend and her new colleagues, we were exchanging stories of the past few weeks, her transition to this new job, the joys and trials of moving, and so on.  It was a fun close to a fun day.

Back at the hotel, my head hit the pillow and my eyes popped open.  "When did my friend say she moved?"  I remembered the date changing several times as she worked to make sure the dates were amenable to the former workplace, the new workplace, her family, etc.  

Remember the "45 days" from the Broken Chains post?  My friend had prayed for me, and he felt like there was something happening for me in 45 days, which turned out to be September 13.  He mentioned that I wouldn't know on that day that something was happening, but that sometime in the future someone would tell me about something happening on September 13, and I would know this was God moving something along for me.  I sent her a text right that moment.  

"When did you say you moved to Florida?"

"I moved on September 13."

No.

Way.

Was this part of the thing that would be my next season?  I mentioned this to Mrs O.  I wasn't convinced, but I was certainly intrigued.  

Our last activity before flying back to Kentucky was to go to the beach.  We didn't have much time, but we drove out to the beach on one of the islands before heading to the airport.  We had a great time, albeit very short.  Then, on the bridge crossing back into town I saw something that hit me at my core.  I saw the skyline which bore a striking resemblence to the shiny new train in my dream I mentioned in The Inventory--sleek and white, with shiny bluish green windows.  

Coincidence?  I don't know.

My resolve about Florida not being for me?  Gone.

The next day at the airport, my friend called.  They wanted to make an offer, but they knew how I had responded before and they wouldn't continue unless I was open to it.  

"I... I don't know if I'm open to it.  I'll need some time to figure that out."